Molly Kay

Happy New Year to you as well, Blake! I'm tired, but good.

Apparently red Dutch cabbage is hard to track down. Look for Langedijker Allervroegste and red Langedijker Bewaar. I did find one website in Europe that sells seeds for the former, but I don't know if they're shipping to the US right now. Here's the link anyway: https://seeds-of-glory.com/product/horti-tops-red-cabbage-langedijker-allervroegste/

I found a Polish heritage website that sells seeds. https://www.polartcenter.com/Vegetable-Seeds-s/355.htm

Could only find one source for Blue Congo seed potatoes, but it's in the UK and says they are unavailable for this year.

Fedco Seeds has Caucasian Mountain Spinach.

No particularly Swedish yellow cucumbers showed up, but there is a Dutch variety that seems to be very old and might be what you're looking for. Gele Tros is available from Baker Creek.

Best of luck with the rest of your searching. I think I've helped all I can at this point.

Google says that some of these are alternate name and more easily found under their more common names.

2. Early York cabbage = Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage
3. New Giant asparagus = Jersey Giant asparagus
4. Large White Flat Norfolk turnip = Early White Flat Dutch turnip
7. Round Leaf Spinach = probably Malabar Big (Green) Round Leaf, but Giant Noble also has large round leaves, there's also a Chinese Spinach with round leaves
9. Long Dutch parsnip = Half Long Guernsey/ Half Long White
14. Celtic fava bean = Horse Bean/English Bean/Broad Windsor Fava

For the above I recommend checking with Baker Creek to start with. They popped up a few times in my searches, and probably have some of these if not all of them.

Old White eggplant did not bring up a specific variety with a more commonly known name.

I could only find a vintage seed packet for the Large Late Drumhead Cabbage. Lone Star Seed company of San Antonio, Texas sold it for 10 cents. Mary's Heirloom Seeds has an heirloom drumhead cabbage that can get up to 10-12 pounds. It looks similar to the illustration from that vintage packet, at least it looks similar to me. https://www.marysheirloomseeds.com/products/drumhead-cabbage

For the Spanish Red sweet potatoes, they could also be the Boniato and I found a source on Etsy for those. https://www.etsy.com/listing/4316748440/boniato-sweet-potato-tops-organic-ready?ls=s&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=boniato+sweet+potato+slips&ref=sr_gallery-1-4&sr_prefetch=1&pf_from=search&sts=1&content_source=1e0f83c2-e73f-4491-8af6-9dcaa02d8742%253ALT0f6adf189b0e95be7b1db3847417bf7937af0a4f&organic_search_click=1&logging_key=1e0f83c2-e73f-4491-8af6-9dcaa02d8742%3ALT0f6adf189b0e95be7b1db3847417bf7937af0a4f

I could only find Red Valentine beans in a bush variety.

Yellow Guinea Flint Corn seed can be purchased from the Montecello shop. https://monticelloshop.org/products/yellow-guinea-flint-corn-seeds-zea-mays-indurata-cv?srsltid=AfmBOoroAYYpaY_DaWqx0KW_M0hvzFle63VdSji-lsabh_i3dTtsXvWz

Sand Hill Preservation Center might have the Disc Nantes gourds for 2026. They haven't updated their Gourds page yet.

No luck on the Yellow Sioux flint corn or the Crown Imperial pea. I did find a great reference website for food in the colonial period of the USA's history that mentions Crown Imperial as the best pea in terms of flavor.

Good luck with your search. I hope this help some.

Don't know if it's the giant variety you're looking for but Brown Envelope Seeds in Ireland has Gortahork cabbage seeds. Here's a link for you https://brownenvelopeseeds.ie/products/gortahook-cabbage

Maggie Scott wrote:Hi, all. New to permies.com  Found the Kickstarter campaign for the purple cards a few days ago and pledged.

Glad you found us, Maggie. Thank you for sharing. I had a brother with TBI. It's not easy. Can't imagine having had three of them, and the pain you deal with.

Maggie Scott wrote:

For years, I have searched for confirmation of this weather sensitivity. Mostly, I have been told "it is all in your head". Not quite.

One of the things that I find odd about establishment medicine is the reluctance to believe patients when they report something that wasn't in one of the text books, especially as more and more people report the same thing. So much of what we now understand on a scientific level was considered anecdotal at first. That's how it starts. Somebody notices something. Other people also notice it. At some point someone decides to research it. The process of discovery has to start somewhere. The start is as important as the end result...there is no end result without a start. Dismissal does not move scientific discovery forward, and it does not enhance the doctor-patient relationship either.

Two of my sons (the ones with the more pronounced autism) are definitely sensitive to barometric pressure. One would always start getting agitated a day or so before a storm system came through. The other one used to tell us it was going to rain before there were obvious signs of it, but he hasn't done that since he was little (too many other things going on in his mind now, I think).

My fibro pain is worse when storms are coming in the winter. Not so bad in the spring, summer, and fall, but winter storms make some of my joints hurt. Like my one son, it hits ahead of the storms--usually one to three days in my case.

We own our place (with a mortgage) but don't consider it our homestead. We both were raised in Rural (capital R deliberate) areas and want room to stretch out, plant more perennials, and have chickens and more if we darn well want to. It's starting to look like moving is a dream that will not be realized, but I refuse to give up hoping. After so many downturns, eventually something has to go right, if only to reinforce the law of averages.

I grew up with dogs, and don't consider life complete without one. Best family breed in my experience is the Norwegian Elkhound. They're northern dogs with heavy double coats (major shedding twice a year). They're smart, even-tempered, and just all-around good dogs. This breed will not live to please you, but they don't get aggressive unless something is very wrong.

My mom knew a family that had an Elkhound, and their toddler was running through the house and tripped over the napping dog. Some breeds might come up snapping but that Elkhound just raised it's head to see who fell over it, saw it was the kid, and went back to sleep.

They dig. So if you're putting them in a fenced yard, you'll want to set the fence down into the ground about a foot. If one gets out, it will stay close by unless it has a running pal. Two dogs out is both dogs gone. And most people aren't familiar with the breed so they get mistaken for huskies or husky crosses.

They do have a fair amount of energy, so if you don't have a large space for them to run in they will need a long walk or two daily.

Chi Monger wrote: If folks can’t bring themselves to engage in some life-appropriate potty-mouth, maybe show them why they simply must, as well as how-to help that cause.  

Forgive me is this isn't the time (it does seem like the place) but I had some ideas. Not necessarily good ideas, of course.

These people know their s#!t.

This s#!t is everybody's problem.

How did this crap get in my river?

S#!t rolls down hill, and most of us don't live at the top of the hill.

Article or blog post titles maybe? I'm not standard folks, but these would definitely get my attention in a way that would lead me to want to learn more about the subject.

Timothy Norton wrote:This might be a goofy question, but I'm not sure if anyone has answered this yet.

How many/much bones do you use to a batch of broth?

I have recently made a deal with a local farm where I got a BUNCH of beef soup bones.

Does somebody have a ratio of pounds of bones to water that works well for them? Does it change depending on where the bones are sourced from?

I was curious about this myself so I did a quick search and found a general rule of 1 lb of bones per 4 C of water (1 litre was mentioned for those using metric). Roast bones first to enhance flavor, and add a few tablespoon or two of an acid (ACV is recommended but I just use lemon juice) to the broth to help break the bones out and extract minerals from them.

Apparently it can vary depending on what the bone source is (beef is more flavorful than chicken is my guess). And of course for a richer broth, use less water or more bones.

A deeper look on a reddit thread told me there is no set ratio as long as the water covers the bones and any aromatics you're adding, and just cook it down until you get the consistency/richness you want. Quoting from that thread..."Ruhlman says for a very gelatinous stock use a 1:1 ratio of bones to water by weight. For a more standard stock use 3 pounds water to 2 pounds bones."  

Bread baking was challenging for me even before my husband's Celiac Disease diagnosis. For some reason yeast does not like to work properly for me in doughs.

I'd love to try sourdough, but I'd get busy and no one else would remember to feed the starter, and it would either die or mutate and take over the kitchen. I don't have the mental energy to tackle a project like that at the moment.

My dad made great bread. Never tried making sourdough, but I'm sure he would have been successful with it.